GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Donald Trump on Friday warned that the media are the biggest threat to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, but added that the press he has garnered for the Republican nominee has caused his poll numbers to rise "very substantially."

Speaking at the North Carolina GOP Convention, Trump praised Romney for his business experience and promise to stand up against China and fight for American economic interests. But the business mogul also focused a portion of his speech on his questions about where President Obama was born. It is the reason why on Tuesday, when Romney earned the 1,144 delegates necessary to secure his party's nomination, much of the news cycle was devoted to his decision to appear with Trump at a fundraiser that day.

A desire by the media to protect Obama is the reason Trump told the more than 1,000 people gathered here that reporters are "really dishonest" and "the biggest thing Mitt Romney has to fear is the press. They don't tell the truth."

But, speaking to reporters after the speech, Trump said it was the media attention he drew for Romney that led to a spike in the polls. "I think he got the headline on a day where I did get a lot of press, and interestingly, since then, his polls numbers have gone up very substantially," Trump said of his appearance with Romney. "So I really think, and he really thinks, that the press has helped and it's been good."

And during his address, Trump again used his appearance as a platform to question the president's birth certificate, the reason he has branded himself as a controversial figure on the national political scene. Calling for the president to release his college records, Trump said, "There is one line called place of birth, I’d like to see what he said..Perhaps it’s going to say Hawaii, perhaps it’s going to say Kenya."

He dismissed that his motives were based in race by citing his recent decision to award African American actor Arsenio Hall the winner of his reality TV show "Celebrity Apprentice."

"Somebody said, 'Oh, because I brought up the birth certificate, I'm a racist. I said, 'How can I be a racist, I just picked Arsenio Hall," said Trump.

Asked after the event why he continues to bring up the issue of the president's birth certificate, Trump said it was the demand from people who want to hear him talk about it, pointing out that the loudest applause line of his nearly hour-long speech came when he was questioning the president's birthplace.

Trump's speech tonight hit on many of the themes that made him a popular figure a year ago when he was mulling over his own presidential run. He called the United States "a patsy" for not take a stronger stance towards China, and he even gave credit to former President Bill Clinton and Newark Mayor Cory Booker for not condemning Romney's work at Bain Capital. He urged the United States to take oil from Iraq to help pay for the war there.

Trump, who has said he likes making money and creating jobs, used Friday's news of an uptick in unemployment to bolster his argument against Obama's economic record. "This is bad news and frankly you could say good news for the Republicans in terms of an election, but I don't care. We love the country first, so it's bad news as far as I'm concerned."

But despite his ability to excite some members of the Republican party, he dismissed any talk of joining a presidential ticket.